diff --git a/metobs/data/__init__.py b/metobs/data/__init__.py
index bf8a2f47d3d59fd2e95130d1a4eb6df452367f3c..2138968d2564ef725c2f29fd737e63847d57f006 100644
--- a/metobs/data/__init__.py
+++ b/metobs/data/__init__.py
@@ -11,7 +11,10 @@ from datetime import timedelta
 import fpconst
 from numpy import array, average, zeros, radians, degrees, arctan2, sin, cos, ndarray, log, minimum, exp, sqrt
 from numpy.ma import masked_array, average as masked_average, MaskedArray, masked_where, column_stack
-from pydap.client import open_url as dapopen
+try:
+    from pydap.client import open_url as dapopen
+except ImportError:
+    dapopen = open 
 
 from metobs import mytime
 
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 4583e5d1fcb7b333573be7f4ceb5e6c720e49f77..4a58d530bdacfd0571b647f6ff636b3585c85b4d 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ version = '0.3'
 
 filelist = [x for x in glob('metobs/**/*') if 'CVS' not in x]
 
-_requires = ['metobs.mytime', 'fpconst>=0.7.2', 'pydap']
+_requires = ['metobs.mytime', 'fpconst>=0.7.2']
 
 setup(name='metobs.data',
       version=version,
@@ -29,4 +29,4 @@ setup(name='metobs.data',
       zip_safe=False,
       install_requires=_requires,
     dependency_links = ['http://larch.ssec.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/repos.cgi']
-)
\ No newline at end of file
+)